Kjellberg lost lucrative contracts with Disney and YouTube in 2016 after repeated instances of antisemitism in his videos.
Photograph: Adithya Sambamurthy/The Guardian for the Guardian

Using the N-word is never okay. It’s a fairly easy rule to live by, but one that needs repeating in the wake of YouTube megastar Felix Kjellberg’s latest controversy.

Commonly known as PewDiePie, the vlogger called another player “a fucking nigger” during a live video stream. Taking too long to realise his mistake, he qualified the racist slur with “I don’t mean in a bad way” and laughed it off.

Social media kicked into gear after the video came to light and condemned the YouTuber. In addition, games developers have publicly criticised Kjellberg. Most notably Sean Vanaman from Campo Santo responded by filing a copyright claim to order YouTube to remove Kjellberg’s Firewatch videos. He also urged other developers to do the same.

Despite the public outcry, many people are coming to Kjellberg’s defence (some using the hastag #PewDiePieDidNothingWrong), dismissing the event as a crime of gaming passion. This ignores his influence and sends a clear message that it’s okay to be racist in the gaming community.

Casual use of racial slurs needs to be condemned wholeheartedly, every single time. There is never a good reason to use the language displayed in this video. Playing a video game is not an excuse, just as being drunk or angry does not give anyone free reign to use racist insults.

Watching the video is shocking because Kjellberg drops the word so casually. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to recognise what he’s just done, until you hear some nervous laughter from someone off-camera prompting Kjellberg to attempt an apology. It’s all framed as something said in the heat of the moment.

It doesn’t represent who he is or what he thinks, his social media supporters claim. His fans tell us that he’s clearly not racist, but all we have to go on is the fact that he repeatedly uses racist language as a source of what he calls satire and entertainment. It’s not the first time racist language has been used in jest by Kjellberg: he lost lucrative contracts with Disney and YouTube in 2016 after repeated instances of antisemitism in his videos.

It’s easy to be sucked in by the affable, good looking YouTuber. Kjellberg’s PewDiePie persona is the funny, care-free friend you want to hang out with. He doesn’t take anything too seriously. He’s fun to have around. Let’s not forget that Kjellberg was the highest paid YouTuber of 2016, earning £11.8m last year with nearly 60 million subscribers. For this seemingly harmless, popular figure with no agenda to use offensive, racist language as if it’s nothing only normalises it. Laughing it off like Kjellberg does is even worse.

The trouble with the “he’s not racist” argument is that it ignores everything that comes with any racial slur. It ignores the pain and the history and the times people have had to shrug off those insults. Using the N-word is a choice, not an accident. And we need to stop framing the perpetrators as the victims because they seem like nice people or because they have black friends and an appreciation of rap music.

Felix Kjellberg AKA PewDiePie poses at the launch of his book in 2015. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Racism isn’t funny. It’s as simple as that. In the current political climate, the far right has managed to rebrand itself as the so called ‘alt-right’, reframing its politics as the acceptable face of racism and homophobia. Only a few weeks ago, a Nazi rally took place in America and dominated news headlines for days.

The word Kjellberg used is not just a word. It’s a word that is heavy with history and suffering, but just because it’s used in rap music or films people feel they are entitled to use it. They are not. And they are not entitled to tell black people not to be offended when someone like Kjellberg uses it.

How many times is the games industry going to be shocked and appalled by Kjellberg’s racist language and stunts? How many apologies does he have to record before we admit that the industry needs to stop supporting him? Silence is complicity.